Civil rights legend John Lewis in Bay Area promoting peaceful protest, new book

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Georgia congressman John Lewis was in the Bay Area Wednesday. He met with high school students, all part of a tour to promote peace and his bestselling books about the civil rights movement.

Students came to hear a living legend, a man who was about their age when he helped changed the course of history. Lewis is a civil rights pioneer, one of the organizers of Dr. King's march on Washington. Now 76 years old, Lewis hopes to inspire the new generation of activists.

"I say to Black Lives Matter young people, study, read, watch the film footage and try to adopt the way of peace and love," Lewis said.

He's still using the non-violent tactics of the 60s, launching the sit-in on the floor of the House of Representaives earlier this summer in a congressional showdown over gun control.

"I said we need to find a way to dramatize the issues, to make it plain, to make it clear," he said.

That's also his mission in a trilogy of books called, "March." The third has just been released. They offer Lewis' eye-witness account of the civil rights movement, with co-author Andrew Aydin and illustrator Nate Powell. The graphic novels are a format that appeal to young people.

"Visual story telling is how they learn, and so if we want to speak to them, we have to speak to them in their language," said co-author Andrew Aydin,

Briana Hill, 15, is inspired by the message. "How we can all come as one and make a lot of things happen if we just come as one," Hill said.

There's a movement to make the congressman's books required reading in high schools nationwide.